


Not What It Seems

by Geekgirles



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: I didn't mean to make this a bash fic, I'm Sorry, So I hope it didn't turn out like that, if so, ml salt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-14
Updated: 2020-09-14
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:42:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,373
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26465107
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Geekgirles/pseuds/Geekgirles
Summary: "But, as she would learn that day, even  the least unassuming people could be far more perceptive than those who seemed to have more going on for them…"
Relationships: mentions of Marinette Dupain-Cheng/Adrien Agreste
Comments: 1
Kudos: 112





	Not What It Seems

Noelle Aubriot was the very definition of ordinary. At least, as ordinary as a teenaged girl living in the akuma-infested Paris could be.

Her parents worked at an office, she was an only child, they all lived in a modest apartment that was near her school –the Françoise Dupont–, she was an average student… And there wasn’t really much else to tell.

Even her looks were average. She was a slender young girl of average height with curly dark hair, olive skin, and hazel eyes. Her signature outfit consisted of a long-sleeved, hot pink sweater, a purple skirt over black leggings, and sneakers.

Yep, she was pretty ordinary.

But, as she would learn that day, even the least unassuming people could be far more perceptive than those who seemed to have more going on for them…

* * *

Break time between periods was a time Noelle preferred to use to catch up with work. Be it working on her notes for upcoming exams or simply reading what the teachers had assigned as homework, she always preferred to save some time for when she decided to hang out with her friends on the weekends. Even so, between assignments she couldn’t help but hear the other teens’ conversations or watch them interact with one another. She sometimes even caught wind of some juicy news.

Apparently, today was one of those rare occasions.

As Noelle highlighted some of her notes from Mme. Mendeleiev’s class, she couldn’t help but overhear the conversation some girls from Mlle. Bustier’s class were having regarding two of her classmates.

“I’m really starting to worry about Marinette, girls.” She heard Alya Césaire, the famous owner of The Ladyblog, say to her friends. “The way she acts around Lila isn’t normal!”

Noelle couldn’t help but roll her eyes. That was not the first time she heard some of Mlle. Bustier’s students comment on Marinette Dupain-Cheng’s actions when it came to that Lila girl. So their classmate didn’t like the new girl? Big deal! Everybody had someone they disliked, it was only natural. It wasn’t like Marinette was turning into Chloé!

“Let me guess, she said Lila was lying to Max about knowing Steve Jobs?” Alix rested her head on her left hand, a look of disinterest plastered on her face. From the look on the skater’s face, Noelle could guess Marinette accusing Lila of lying was a fairly common occurrence.

“You guessed it.” Alya sighed.

“Now that you mention it, I’m starting to get worried too.” Rose spoke up, rubbing her hands nervously. “I just don’t get it, Marinette is the sweetest girl in our class, and Lila is so cool! You’d think those two would make better friends. And yet, Marinette bristles whenever Lila so much as opens her mouth…” She finished, shaking her head sadly.

“It doesn’t make any sense…” Juleka muttered.

“Oh, you know it makes no sense!” Alya huffed as she crossed her arms indignantly. “The only thing that makes _even less_ sense if Marinette’s claims that Lila lies. Why would she even need to lie?!” She said at the same time as she threw her arms to her sides, a clear sign of her exasperation.

“Have you asked yourselves that same question concerning Marinette?”

All the girls’ heads shot up in alarm at the sound of the new voice. Turning around to identify the person who’d spoken, they saw a girl they recognised from Mme. Mendeleiev’s class sitting on a bench not far away from them.

Noelle cursed herself. She didn’t mean to get involved in their business, but she couldn’t help it; the more she listened to these girls talk, the more she thought the only thing that didn’t make any sense was their reasoning.

As the six girls stared at one another awkwardly, Mylène was the one to speak up first, “What do you mean?”

Blinking slowly and begging to any god willing to listen that she didn’t stutter, Noelle closed her book before turning to face them. “I’m saying if you’ve asked yourselves about why would Marinette need to lie about that Lila girl in the first place.” After a beat she added, “I’m Noelle Aubriot, by the way.”

Alix rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly, “We know, Noelle. We’ve all been in the same class with you before, remember?”

“I haven’t.” Alya pointed out. “I’m Alya.”

“I know.”

“So, why do you ask us if we’ve thought about why Marinette would lie about Lila?” The journalist inside Alya was taking full control of the situation.

But Noelle wasn’t really affected by the question. “As Alix said, I’ve been in the same class as almost every member of your classroom at least once. I know Marinette, she _hates_ liars and bullies; she would never try to hurt someone else, let alone through lies!” And who could blame her? For years the poor girl had been Chloé’s favourite target, nobody knew better than her what it was like to be in the receiving end of such petty behaviour. “What could she possibly gain from causing Lila trouble? How do you know she’s not telling you the truth, what if Lila really _is_ lying?”

“Well…” Rose started, fidgeting with her fingers as she spoke, “We think Marinette really does have a reason for disliking Lila as much as she does…” Whatever they thought was the reason for such animosity couldn’t be any good if the petite girl refused to even meet her eyes.

“It’s just that we don’t approve of it. That’s why we’re worried.” Mylène finished explaining on her friend’s behalf.

Now that was different. Whatever it was that Marinette had against the Italian girl had to be very serious for her friends to be so exasperated about it. She leaned in closer to hear what they had to say. “Well, what is it?”

“Marinette’s jealousy issues.” Alya sighed.

The French dictionary _Le Grand Robert de la Langue Française_ had around 100,000 words in its pages, and yet, all Noelle could say in response to that statement was, “What?”

“Marinette’s been jealous of Lila since she first arrived at school because she’s close to Adrien, and Marinette has a _huge_ crush on him.” Alya explained.

Noelle blinked. And blinked again. And a third time for good measure. Looking around she could perfectly see the blond model standing on one side of the schoolyard, talking to Nino, while the brunette was in the complete opposite direction. Several metres separating the two ‘buddies.’ “Close to Adrien?” She asked. “What makes you think that?”

“Well, Adrien’s always so nice to her... And Lila really seems to enjoy his company…” Juleka tried to reason.

Noelle’s disbelief must have been showing on her face, judging by the uneasy looks they were giving her. But she just couldn’t understand how they could possibly consider _that_ as being close. “Look, I don’t know how those two act around each other at class, but I’ve seen them during break.” This was one of the few instances where she was grateful for the times she’d lose her focus while doing homework. “They rarely interact, and when they do it’s _Lila_ who goes to _Adrien_ , looking far more interested in the conversation than he does… In fact,” she added like an afterthought, “Adrien seems rather… _uncomfortable_ when Lila’s around.” She rolled her eyes, “Not that I blame him.”

“What do you mean?” Alix asked, slowly growing more interested in the conversation.

Noelle shrugged nonchalantly, “Whenever Lila is close to Adrien she always invades his personal space, far more than what is acceptable between ‘friends.’” She air-quoted, she couldn’t repress a shudder at the memory of how the brunette usually acted around the model. She looked…predatory. “I don’t want to sound mean, but it’s pretty obvious her feelings are _not_ mutual.”

“Feelings?” Alya raised an eyebrow, thoroughly confused. “What are you talking about? Lila’s not in love with Adrien, she said so herself!” How could she be discussing this again with someone other than Marinette? Like she told the pigtailed girl, Lila herself assured Nino she didn’t have a crush on Adrien when she needed his help with schoolwork.

“Right… And you believed her.” Noelle deadpanned.

“Of course!” Rose came to her friend’s defence. “Why would she lie about that?”

“I don’t know.” She shrugged before sending the girls a knowing look. “Why would Marinette deny her crush on Adrien?”

And with that simple question she knew she’d disarmed them.

But, apparently, Myléne still had some ammo left. “But that still doesn’t explain the way she acted when Lila came back.”

Noelle raised an eyebrow, silently signalling for the short girl to continue. “When Lila came back, we had to rearrange out seats to accommodate Lila. She had tinnitus, so she needed to be seated in the front, _next to Adrien_.” She stressed the words enough to hint what she thought was the reason for Marinette’s behaviour that day. “She acted all accusatory and mad about it. Had it been for anyone else, she would’ve been the first one to move.” She looked at her friends, who nodded, urging them to support her story.

Now that was odd. It was true Marinette was usually quick to give a helping hand to those in need. Maybe it was because she would’ve ended beside someone she didn’t like, like Chloé?

“I see. Who did she sit with?” Noelle was taken aback by the girls’ sudden silence and their incapability to look her in the eye. “What?” She snapped at them.

“She was sent to the back of the classroom… Alone.” Alya muttered in the tiniest voice imaginable.

“Yeah… Thinking back, maybe it makes a little sense that Marinette got angry over that. Especially considering we all got the chance to sit with whoever we wanted…” Alix sheepishly mentioned, rubbing the back of her head.

“But that doesn’t change the fact that she all but interrogated Lila about her tinnitus! Even after Lila told us she got it from saving Jagged Stone’s kitten!” Rose countered.

 _Wait a minute… Something doesn’t add up._ Noelle thought, narrowing her eyes. “Guys, did you say you had to rearrange your seats when Lila came _back_?”

“Yeah, that’s right.” Juleka answered.

“But if she’s suffered from tinnitus for so long, why did you only change seats when she got back? Why not when she arrived?” She narrowed her eyes in suspicion. Something was definitely fishy about the situation.

Being the one who brought the subject up, Rose asked, “What do you mean?”

She crossed her arms, her explanation may be about to uncover some harsh truths. “I might not be the biggest Jagged Stone fan, but it’s hard to forget a dude with a crocodile for a pet. And let me tell you, he’s had Fang for a really long time, long before Lila even arrived.”

Alya mulled over her words. It made sense, if Jagged had a kitten before Fang, that had to have been a few years ago at least. There was no way Lila’s family hadn’t notified the school of such a long-suffering condition when she was first enrolled in the school. And Noelle was also right when she pointed out the way Lila acted around Adrien. Now that she gave it some thought, it reminded her of Chloé’s own crush on the boy. But that meant… “Are you saying Lila lied about her condition so she could be close to Adrien?”

The girls gasped at the gravity of such accusation. Lying was one thing, but lying about a medical condition was a very different matter. Unlike the others, Noelle just sighed; getting into trouble for a hunch wasn’t worth it. “I can’t say for certain, but if she’s willing to lie about something so serious just to be closer to a boy, then it’s not so hard to believe Marinette may actually have a very good reason for not liking her.”

“I can’t believe it…” Mylène breathed out, her head was slowly shaking from left to right in disbelief. “How could Lila do that?!”

“Yeah!” Rose balled her fists in determination. “Lila’s always so nice!”

Noelle couldn’t help but feel pity for the girls. Was their whole class this naïve? Because if so, then it was no mystery why it was always them who were akumatised. “Just because she’s nice to you doesn’t mean she’s not lying, or a good person, for that matter.”

“I don’t get it.” Alya said, one hand on her hip. Judging from her expression it was obvious she was still trying to add two and two. “If she’s not even a good person, why even pretend? Chloé sure doesn’t have to… Surely, Lila can’t be _that_ bad, right?” The girl with glasses looked at her friends, hoping to get some encouragement or any way of agreement or support coming from them.

“But that’s the thing, the worst people are usually those you don’t see coming.” When the girls turned to her with puzzled looks, Noelle thought it’d be best if she explained things with an example they would all understand. “Not everyone is going to be as obviously nasty as Chloé.”

Realisation downed on them, which was made apparent by their collective, “Ohhhhhh!”

“So you’re saying Lila could actually be worse than Chloé but she’s, for some reason, pretending to be nice?” Noelle nodded at the pink-loving girl. “But that’s too much of a headache!”

“Yeah, why would she even do that?” Alix wondered out loud.

The brown-eyed girl could only shrug, wondering the same thing. As much as she’d like to get to the bottom of it, the bell rang soon after, signalling the end of the break. “Anyways, I should get going; class is about to start.” She turned around to gather her books and pencil case, ready to head back to her classroom, when a thought occurred to her. She addressed the girls one last time. “But remember, girls; if all villains acted like bad guys even without the mask, Ladybug and Chat Noir would’ve figured out Hawk Moth’s secret identity long ago.”

After the dark-haired girl left, the group of friends exchanged a look that proved they were all thinking the same thing; they had many thoughts to get sorted out.

**Author's Note:**

> Not gonna lie, I took that background character who apears in Alya's Instagram and gave her a name and, hopefully, a personality. 
> 
> As I said in the notes, I didn't mean to write a bash fic. Quite honestly, as much as I love ML Salt, I don't like seeing the characters having their IQ lowered even more than Chameleon did. But fanfics where the flaws in Lila's lies are pointed out and the characters finally wisen up? Those I love!
> 
> Anyway, hope you guys enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it!


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